Page 83 of It'll Always Be Her
ChapterEighteen
Adam pressed his lips against Bee’s fragrant hair, smoothing it back from her forehead as she murmured a noise in her sleep. She was still naked, her gorgeous breasts barely concealed by the blanket and her hair sliding over her smooth shoulders.
He kissed the back of her neck, inhaling deeply as his head filled with her scent, and his body hardened in an instant reaction. No surprise that he wanted her again. He’d known from their first kiss that he’d never be able to get enough of her—and last night had only confirmed it.
He shoved aside the reminder that he’d have to leave her soon. They still had a whole weekend away together, and then he’d drive up to visit her as often as he could during postproduction.
And after that…he’d find a way to make it work. He’d been forced to walk away from too many things in his life that had been important to him, and he’d be damned if he’d do that with Bee.
Besides, she was far more than just “important.” He didn’t even have a name for all the things she was starting to become in his life.
Although he was tempted to keep touching and caressing her until she woke up and turned toward him with a warm smile, he moved away from her and eased out of bed. As much as he wanted her again, she needed to sleep.
He took a shower and brushed his teeth, then pulled on jeans and a T-shirt. After scribbling a note for Bee, he stuck his phone in his pocket and headed outside.
Dawn was starting to break over the ocean, the sunlight spearing through the newspaper-gray marine fog. Seagulls made a slow circle over the beach, and the air was crisp with the smells of salt and redwoods.
Pulling the air into his lungs, he started up the small hill to the library. A new energy filled his veins—no doubt because of Bee and everything she made him feel and want. Things he’d never felt or wanted before. He wasn’t even sure what they all were, except that they felt damn good.
Hefelt good. Better than he had in years.
He unlocked the library’s front doors with the key Bee had given him and went inside. Without her, the darkened interior felt empty and flat, as if it were missing something vital. A heartbeat.
He made the rounds, checking the cameras and collecting the meters and audio recorders they left in different locations throughout the house.
The EFMs had been registering a lot of fluctuations in light, which had made for some great scenes of Clyde prowling around the stacks, his eyes wide as he spoke in a low, warning voice about the close presence of the ghost.
Adam put the audio recorders back in the conference room for review later than morning. With luck, the recorders would have captured enough ambient noise to string together into some sort of speech pattern.
They’d amplify and manipulate the recording, then assign it a phrase that matched the tones—something relating to ghost, like “Leave my house.” Anyone who listened to the recording while expecting to hear that phrase would think they actually heard it.
Done. They’d have an electronic voice phenomenon to add to their evidence of the Gardenia House haunting. When it came to the paranormal, expectations and perceptions often won over basic science. The show’s producers would even have to acknowledge that the EVP sounded like an authentic ghost.
He reviewed some of the video footage, keeping a close eye out for any flicker of light or shadow that might pass as proof of a paranormal.
Even if he hadn’t known that Bee and her library assistants were incapable of deception—not to mention, they all genuinely believed in the ghost—he wouldn’t have found any evidence of a hoax. They’d done plenty of shows like this before when he’d had to tell true believers that their ghosts were nothing more than dust or the reflection of light caught by an infrared sensor.
But this time, his scientific evidence would just be less…evident.
He pushed away from the monitors and started upstairs. His phone started up withThe Addams Familytheme song.
“You’re not allowed to text me that you’re bringing a date but give me zero details,” Laura said when he accepted the call. “How did you go fromI’m flying solofour days ago toI have a girlfriend?”
Adam was wondering the same thing. “Uh, she’s not my girlfriend.”
He wanted her to be, obviously, but they were still in this weird “more than friends” zone that he wasn’t sure how to navigate.
“She’s not your girlfriend, but she’s coming with you all the way to DC, and you’re introducing her to Mom and Dad?” Laura’s voice rose with incredulity. “What, are you possessed or something? What’s going on?”
Again, he had no idea—and for the first time in his life, he didn’t want toknoweverything. He just liked whatever he was feeling.
“She works at the library where we’re shooting the next episode,” he explained. “And we hooked up, I asked her if she wanted to come to the party, and she said yes. Just a spontaneous thing, that’s all.”
“Ha. You don’t do spontaneous, which makes me even more eager to meet her. What’s her name?”
“Bee Delaney.”
“I’m looking her up right now. Oh, she’s super cute. Very librarian, in a good way. I’ll bet she leads storytime and craft hour, doesn’t she?”